Celebrities' green houses

How are celebrities changing their lifestyles to be greener? Take the tour.

It probably won’t always be newsworthy when celebrities move into green dwellings—or perhaps it will just be hard to keep up because it’s happening more and more often. Two green thumbs up for these latest eco-estate acquisitions by the stars:

Just as Brad Pitt moves with Angelina Jolie and family into a French Chateau with an organic vineyard, the actor’s announced that he’s expanding his eco-home building projects in New Orleans to also join the same architectural team of consultants working on a green hotel in the ever-growing Dubai.

Like Sex’s Kristin Davis, Friends’ Jennifer Aniston plans an eco-friendly abode including drought-resistant plants and green materials. And, inspired by their children to clean up the environment, Jessica Alba created a green nursery, while Gossip Girl’s Kelly Rutherford outfitted her residence with denim insulation and energy-saving lights.

While Canadian crooner Celine Dion has gotten a lashing for her low greendex, guzzling 6.5 million gallons of water annually at her spread near Palm Springs (compared to 120,000 on average), singer Kylie Minogue put her 222-acre green digs in Australia—complete with wind power, organic garden, and 1000 trees where koala hang—on the market. Another Ozzie, Cate Blanchett (who’s starring in the new Indiana Jones movie), retrofitted her mansion with grey water recycling and other greenovations by Palm Beach-based Lesiuk Architects (maybe Celine should check them out—they’re in the same town!). She’s bringing the ideas to the Sydney Theater Company where she’s co-artistic director.

Another down-under community, New Zealand Malibu, overlooks the coastline, and is specifically geared for “conscious celebrities,” according to the developer. The community will consist of 16 sustainably designed home lots on native lands, and an organic café, yoga, and meditation center. That’s all well and good, but do we really need another Malibu?

Australian actress Isabel Lucas (Transformer) moves to Hollywood near beau Adrian Grenier, making appearances with his green “entourage” on Alter Eco, the hip series on Planet Green covering cool, LA LEED-certified spots. In conjunction with the new green network, Arianna Huffington adds HuffPost Green to her website to cover eco lifestyles, business news, and celebrities.

Story by Roberta Cruger. This article originally appeared in Plenty in June 2008.